New Hampshire foreclosure filings rose 15 percent from the previous month to 897 properties with foreclosure filings in October, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The monthly total is also 30 percent ahead of the state foreclosure level reported one year ago.

“New Hampshire foreclosures were up both on a monthly and yearly basis for October,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The largest jump was in auction notices, which climbed 16 percent for the month. However, the state’s unemployment rate remains well below the national average, and home sales have improved this year. Therefore the increase in foreclosure activity we are seeing is most likely the result of overall recessionary forces.”

New Hampshireranked 38th in the country in total foreclosures for the month. With one in every 662 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing, its foreclosure rate ranked 22nd among the 50 states.

HillsboroughCounty posts state’s top foreclosure rate in October

With one in every 479 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — 1.4 times the state average — Hillsborough County posted the highest county foreclosure rate in the state for October. BelknapCounty ranked second highest, reporting one in every 557 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — 1.2 times the state average. MerrimackCounty had the third highest rate, with one in every 671 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. Fourth highest foreclosure rate was in RockinghamCounty, where one in every 698 housing units received a foreclosure filing. Fifth highest rate was reported in StraffordCounty, where one in every 728 housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Five counties dominate state in foreclosure totals during October

Five counties accounted for 82 percent of all foreclosure activity in the state for October. HillsboroughCounty led all counties, totaling 338 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. RockinghamCounty was second highest, documenting 177 properties with foreclosure filings. Reporting 92 properties with foreclosure filings for the month, MerrimackCounty was third highest. StraffordCounty came in fourth, reporting 69 properties with foreclosure filings, while the fifth highest total was in BelknapCounty, where 64 properties with foreclosure filings were reported for the month.

State a minor contributor to nation’s foreclosure total in October

New Hampshire accounted for less than 1 percent of the 332,292 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in October. Total U.S. activity declined 3 percent from the previous month but was still 19 percent ahead of October 2008. One in every 385 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the county, state and national level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default— Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.